Micro Sleep Mode Control For a Receiver

1. A method of controlling a receiver of a communication device, the method comprising: determining, based on an evaluation of a mode setting criterion, whether the receiver should enter a regular micro sleep mode or an extended micro sleep mode; receiving, by the receiver component, a first sub-frame portion; and as a result of determining that the receiver should enter the extended micro sleep mode, performing the following steps: switching off the receiver component immediately after the first sub-frame portion has been received and before any determination is made as to whether the second sub-frame portion includes data intended to be received and decoded by the communication device; and switching on the receiver component at a later point in time at which the receiving component is not operable to receive and decode data included in the second sub-frame portion of the first sub-frame but is operable to decode a first sub-frame portion of a second sub-frame that immediately follows the first sub-frame, wherein the regular micro sleep mode is a micro sleep mode in which the receiver component is switched off in response to a determination that a result of a decoding of a first sub-frame portion of a first sub-frame indicates that a second sub-frame portion of the first sub-frame does not need to be decoded.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising decoding the first sub-frame portion to determine whether the second sub-frame portion includes data intended to be received and decoded by the communication device while the receiver is in the extended micro sleep mode.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising triggering a re-transmission of the second sub-frame portion as a result of determining that the second sub-frame portion includes data intended to be received and decoded by the communication device while the receiver is in the extended micro sleep mode.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising switching to the regular micro sleep mode or a regular reception mode as a result of determining that the second sub-frame portion includes data intended to be received and decoded by the communication device while the receiver is in the extended micro sleep mode.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising: receiving the re-transmitted second sub-frame portion in either one of the regular micro sleep mode and the regular reception mode; and initializing a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request, or HARQ, buffer based on the re-transmission.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mode setting criterion is based on short-term statistics regarding whether second sub-frame portions needed to be decoded previously.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mode setting criterion is based on a priori knowledge.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the a priori knowledge relates to one or more of a semi-persistent allocation of relevant content in the second sub-frame portion, a measurement schedule, a re-transmission behaviour, channel conditions, a Shared Channel, or SCH, reading and a Broadcast Channel, or BCH, reading.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the receiver is configured to evaluate the mode setting criterion on a per sub-frame basis, and further comprising skipping the evaluation for one or more sub-frames depending on the a priori knowledge.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mode setting criterion is based on expiry of at least one of an uplink time alignment timer and a downlink inactivity timer.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first sub-frame portion is defined by a predetermined number of modulation symbols representative of at least a first transmission channel and the second sub-frame portion is defined by a predetermined number of modulation symbols representative of at least a second transmission channel.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the first transmission channel is a Physical Downlink Control Channel and the second transmission channel is a Physical Downlink Shared Channel according to the 3rd Generation Partnership Project's Long Term Evolution standard.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein information carried in the first sub-frame portion relates to a downlink scheduling grant.

14. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium storing program code for performing the steps of claim 1 when the computer program product is executed on a computing device.

15. A receiver that is controllable to enter a micro sleep mode during which at least one receiver component is temporarily switched off, wherein the receiver is configured to process sub-frames each having a first sub-frame portion followed by a second sub-frame portion, the first sub-frame portion carrying information indicative of whether or not the second sub-frame portion needs to be decoded, wherein a regular micro sleep mode is provided in which the receiver component is switched off after the first sub-frame portion of a first sub-frame has been decoded in case the decoding indicates that the second sub-frame portion of a first sub-frame does not need to be decoded, the receiver comprising: a receiver component; a processor for determining, based on an evaluation of a mode setting criterion, whether the receiver should enter a regular micro sleep mode or an extended micro sleep mode; and a controller, wherein the controller is configured such that, as a result of the processor determining that the receiver should enter the extended micro sleep mode, the controller: switches off the receiver component immediately after a first sub-frame portion of a first sub-frame has been received and before any determination is made as to whether a second sub-frame portion of the first sub-frame includes data intended to be received and decoded by the receiver; and switches on the receiver component at a later point in time at which the receiving component is not operable to receive and decode data included in the second sub-frame portion of the first sub-frame but is operable to decode a first sub-frame portion of a second sub-frame that immediately follows the first sub-frame.

16. The receiver of claim 15 , further comprising a decoder adapted to decode, in the extended micro sleep mode when the receiver component has been switched off, the first sub-frame portion to determine whether the second sub-frame portion would need to be decoded, wherein the controller is further adapted to switch, when the decoding of the first sub-frame portion indicates that the second sub-frame portion would need to be decoded, to the regular micro sleep mode or a regular reception mode.

17. The receiver of claim 16 , further comprising a triggering component adapted to trigger, when the decoding of the first sub-frame portion indicates that the second sub-frame portion would need to be decoded, a re-transmission of the second sub-frame portion.

18. The receiver of claim 15 , wherein the receiver comprises one or more of the following receiver components configured to be switched off during the regular and extended micro sleep modes: a complete radio front end, an analog-to-digital converter, a low-noise amplifier, a filter stage, and a mixer stage.

19. The receiver of claim 15 , further comprising at least one of an uplink time alignment timer and a downlink inactivity timer, wherein the processor is adapted to evaluate a timer expiry as the mode setting criterion.

20. A mobile terminal comprising a transceiver, the transceiver including the receiver of claim 15 .

21. The mobile terminal of claim 20 , configured to operate according to the 3rd Generation Partnership Project's Long Term Evolution standard.